Good Intentions
by Arbeitsfeier
Summary: When the weary spirit pledged to pay back a debt to Danny Fenton, he did so with only the best intentions. But as the road they walk becomes more and more complicated, will good intentions be enough, or are some journeys meant to be taken alone?
1. Chapter 1

Demon!Phantom/Danny Fenton plot bunny? Sure, let's do this.

* * *

It was 2 am on a Sunday.

...No, that wasn't quite right. Technically, it was now 2 am on a Monday; Sunday had long since fled westward and over the horizon, behind dying light and with only the vague promise of its future return.

Not much moved at this late hour. Or perhaps "late" too had abandoned him, and now it was an "early" hour. Danny Fenton wasn't entirely sure, lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He fully intended to keep thinking about it until he reached a conclusion. When the conclusion was reached, maybe he would think it over again, just to be sure.

Anything to avoid thinking about _that_.

 _That_ was sitting in his desk chair, twiddling _it_ s thumbs and spinning lazily in slow, squeaking circles.

As _it_ had been doing more or less continuously, for the last five hours, after Danny made it perfectly clear that he was going to ignore _it_ until _it_ disappeared.

"You're really going to keep this up all night, huh?" _It_ asked.

 _It_ had first made an appearance, albeit a very brief one, some twelve hours prior.

No, it must have been thirteen. He had gone to Nasty Burger with Sam and Tucker at noon to catch the summer lunch special. When they got inside, they found the place was absolutely packed, so they got their food to go rather than eating in as they had originally intended to.

 _It_ sighed. "You are, aren't you? I'm not going anywhere, you know."

Danny did not know that. What he did know was that _that_ had appeared to him in a haze of green energy thirteen hours prior. Sam had the bright idea to "check out" the Fenton Ghost Portal. Danny, as ever on board with her plans no matter how crazy, reluctantly agreed. "Check out" became "turn on" when he tripped over a cord and slammed into the power button from inside the device. He thought he had seen _it_ then, a vague blob of green with glowing red eyes, examining him from head to toe. He caught the barest hint of a twisted smile and white hair before it disappeared.

When Danny got out of the fog, he quite reasonably assumed he had imagined everything. He was lucky he hadn't been electrocuted. It was probably very stressful for his system. Who knows what kind of crazy chemicals he might have been exposed to. And so on.

He didn't even mention the hallucination to Sam or Tucker.

"Are you just trying to put off talking about this until morning? I could put you to sleep if it would help." _It_ offered.

Cold terror gripped him. His heart, already racing, hammered in his chest, and he found himself shaking slightly as clammy hands gripped even tighter to the pale blue bedspread. _It_ wasn't real. But that didn't mean _it_ couldn't hurt him. And even if that conclusion didn't stand up to any reasonable amount of logical scrutiny, Danny wasn't going to take any chances. He locked eyes on a paint chip on the ceiling and resolved to not so much as blink until dawn.

"Hello?"

He screamed, and in one swift motion backed up away from the face that was suddenly taking up most of his field of view, until he ran out of bed; landing with a thump, he clutched his sheets and kept scurrying backward until he bumped into the corner of the room.

"Um, are you OK?" _It_ asked, knowing full well that he was anything but.

It was a completely reasonable thing to not be OK, when you go about your daily business, assuming you were temporarily hallucinating, only to go to your room several hours later to find that hallucination sitting in your chair, smiling cheerily at you.

It was even more reasonable to not be OK when _it_ introduced _it_ self as a demon and offered you _it_ s services.

* * *

At some point, and quite in spite of himself, he must have fallen asleep. It might've all been a dream if he wasn't still crouched in the corner of the room, wrapped up in his blankets from head to toe.

Or indeed, if _it_ wasn't still in the room.

Sitting on the floor next to his bed.

Reading a book.

As though this was all the most normal thing in the world.

When Danny let out a small squeaking sound, _it_ looked above the cover at him, before lowering the book slightly and grinning. In the light, Danny caught a glint of fangs. "Oh good, you're up! I've been wanting to ask, where exactly are these 'Misty Mountains'? I've never even heard of them before..."

"You're... You're real!"

 _It_ raised a questioning eyebrow, grin diminishing, before looking _it_ self up and down.

 _It_ was a peculiar sort of creature. On a basic level, _i_ _t_ looked just like Danny, albeit with white hair, green eyes, and skin just slightly more tanned than his own. In lieu of normal clothing, _i_ _t_ was covered from neck-to-toe in a black, vaguely glowing material that left very little to the imagination; the only exceptions were boots, gloves, and a belt, all of which were the same starkly contrasting white as _it_ s hair. To all appearances, _it_ could have been a human. At least, were it not for the stubs of horns that poked through the hairline above _it_ s forehead, or the large feathery white wings that he had seen extend at least as far as _it_ was tall.

"Hmm, yes. I do seem to be real. And this is surprising to you?"

"I thought I had imagined you!"

"Are you especially prone to madness? Do you frequently see things that aren't real?"

"No! I mean, maybe! You _can't_ be real!"

"Listen, are you sure you're the one who activated that portal...? Normally when a human frees a demon, they at least expected to do so."

At the mention of the 'D' word, Danny buried himself slightly deeper in his security blanket, until only his eyes were visible.

The demon frowned and scooted closer, setting down the book. "Please remain calm, that was a rhetorical question. I know you are the one who freed me. What I don't know is why you are so afraid of me. Is it something I said...?"

Any hope of deciphering Danny's response was lost through layers of muffling cotton.

With a sigh, _it_ leaned forward and pinched at the fabric over a quaking Danny, pulling the blanket down to reveal the teen's face in full. "Once more, please?"

"Ar-are you going to-to steal my s-s-soul?!"

"Why would I want your soul?"

"D-demons always steal souls!"

"Ah, no we don't? At least so far as I know, anyway," _it_ added as an afterthought. "I have met few others of my kind, in particular after I became trapped in the Ghost Zone. But I assure you, I at least have no need for human souls. I'm not entirely sure how one would go about _taking_ a soul, thinking about it..."

"Then why... Why are you here?"

"It really is as simple as I told you last night. You freed me from an embarrassing situation. Now I am honour-bound to repay you in kind."

The demon swept his arms out in a grandly open gesture of good faith. Danny receded slightly further into his cotton-rayon cocoon.

"Could... Could you just go away?"

 _It_ frowned. "For the love of... _No._ I'm going to repay you somehow, come stygian fires or blessèd floods." Danny groaned before covering himself completely. "Come now, don't be ridiculous. Just carry along with your day, and I will assist when possible."

A moment passed in which Danny made absolutely no motion to get up. Finally, the bedding was flung off of him with a flourish. "Starting _now_ , thanks. I may not know your routine, but I'm sure you have places to be on a lovely morning like this."

* * *

"You have very odd taste in pastimes."

Danny sighed, trying his best to keep a few paces ahead of the demon. "I've already told you, I _have_ to go to school."

"You don't _have_ to do anything, you know. That's the whole point of being mortal, isn't it?"

"...what are you even talking about?"

"Well really, you could just as well spend the day fishing by the river, lounging under the shade of a tree, dancing and merry-making, or—"

"You're insane."

The footsteps caught up to him, and quite suddenly _it_ was at his side, now almost jogging sideways to keep up. "No, what's 'insane' is any civilisation that would shut its youth away in darkened buildings rather than letting them enjoy the halcyon days of summer."

"It's September. That means I have to go to school so I don't have to spend July there instead. And- You know what, why am I even explaining this to you?"

"Presumably, because I am curious."

"I bet you could find out all about it _somewhere else_. Preferably away from _me_ , so I won't look like a lunatic talking to thin air."

"Hmph. First, you want me to _not_ appear to people, now you don't want me to do that either. Quite a changeable little tempest, aren't we?"

Danny stopped, and to his slight amusement his unwanted follower nearly stumbled over at the sudden change. "What I _want_ is for people to not see me talking to a weird kid with wings! Seriously, I've been to school like a million times, nothing is going to come up you can even help with."

 _It_ had clearly stopped listening. Even worse, _it_ had the sort of clever gleam in _it_ s smile that Danny had already learned to dread. "So the problem is my appearance, hmm? Well, we can easily fix that."

A bright light enveloped _it_ s form, temporarily blinding Danny. When he blinked away the spots in his eyes, his fears were confirmed. Gone were the horns and wings, as was the absurd black-and-white bodysuit. The demon was instead wearing jeans, sneakers, and a dark green t-shirt with a long-sleeved top under it. _It_ could have passed for a skater, if skaters had white hair, and smiled like a cat about to pounce on its prey.

...Danny didn't like his role in that analogy.

"You see, there should be no problem now. I'll just follow along in case you have need of me, and to all appearances, I will be a completely normal teenager until this schooling is over." _It_ patted him on the back. "How long will that be, incidentally? An hour or two?"

With a defeated sigh, Danny resumed walking. This was going to be a weird day.

* * *

I'll say right off the bat, this probably isn't going to get super regular updates. It's mostly going to depend on how busy I am with other stuff because this was basically just a plot bunny that demanded I provide it with a Chapter 1 and an overall plot outline before I could get on with my day. *Shrugs*

Still, this should be a fun ride. Don't take it too seriously, and if you're creeped out by this 'ship I'd say stop now because it's only going to get worse. Or feel free to call me a weirdo instead. I'm not a cop.


	2. Chapter 2

"What are you supposed to be?"

Danny paused in the doorway, nearly being hit as the front door swung shut behind him. With a whoosh of air it opened again, and he turned around to face Sam, staring at him and the demon incredulously.

To Danny's even greater horror, the demon seemed to be about to respond. In a panic, he blurted out. "This is a new student! An exchange student. He's staying with my family."

His companion gave him an odd look before smiling brightly back at Sam. "Ah, Danny's... Parents, didn't tell him I would be joining you two _this_ week," it lied easily, "I'm afraid he was rather flustered by my arrival last night. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Sam crossed her arms, ignoring the offered hand. "He didn't mention you'd be joining us _at all_ , actually. Where exactly are you from?"

"The City of Tiflis, most recently, although my life's travels across ancient Cardueli took me from the highest steps of the Molten Mountain to the sulphur baths of the Lord's Fortress."

With widened eyes, Danny forced out a laugh and practically shouted, "That's a great joke! Europe. He's from Europe." As the demon moved to disagree, Danny elbowed him sharply in the side.

She didn't look convinced in the least. "...uh-huh. And your name is...?"

Danny was about to suggest 'Greg' or something as a name when he was elbowed right back. With a soft chuckle, the demon instead replied, "Why, I have no need of a name. Names exist to distinguish an entity from its peers, and I myself am peerless. But of course, you would know all about that, wouldn't you?"

He flashed Sam a winning smile, who in turn narrowed her eyes and seemed to bite back some very choice words. After a tense moment of unflinching staring, she turned to Danny. "Can I talk to you for a second? _Alone_?"

Before he could respond, Danny found himself grabbed by the arm, being dragged several paces away. "Danny, you do realize that guy's a demon, right?"

"I... Demon? Uh... That's, what do you, uh, mean?" Another nervous laugh.

Sam rolled her eyes at him. "Demons are a euro-goth subculture, they're big on satanic worship and rioting." She pursed her lips, briefly considering something. "He sounds British, right? From what I've heard they usually aren't too intense, so you probably won't have to worry about him burning down churches or doing drugs or whatever... But you've got to be careful around him alright?"

Danny looked back at the demon, who was cheerily looking around the front lawn of the school. When he caught Danny's gaze, he smiled a broad, warm smile, a flurry of long eyelashes flying in front of jade ponds with a quick wink. It was all... Too normal.

He gulped and nodded at Sam. "Yeah, way ahead of you."

* * *

"So, uh, about that kid."

"Hmm? Oh." Danny could see Sam's eyebrows visibly furrow, even with her walking beside him toward his locker. "Yeah, how about that kid. Where the hell did you parents _find_ him, Danny?"

"Oh, um—" He was saved from finding a plausible sounding lie when she continued.

"He was paying _way_ too close attention in class. There's just no way it could be that interesting to anyone, for one thing. If he's the kind of rebel-without-a-cause those euro-goths usually are it wouldn't make sense for him to go along with the lesson unless he's planning something. But _what_?"

"My lady, I don't think you give me nearly enough credit."

Both teenagers spun on their heels, Sam swearing like a sailor and Danny giving a small squeak before losing his footing and falling to the floor. The demon chuckled and offered his hand to the boy, who scrambled up unassisted with a slight tinge of red in his cheeks.

"I was merely trying not to get Danny in any trouble. He has made it clear that as his guest I should seek to blend in. But that doesn't mean I can't be helpful, does it? I took the liberty of grabbing your lunch bag already," he handed a brown paper bag to Danny, who immediately opened it to inspect the contents. It did appear to be the same bag he had been on his way to his locker to retrieve. "And my own, of course." The demon grinned and held up another brown paper bag. It was identical to Danny's. _Too_ identical.

"Ah, so your name is Danny as well, huh?" Sam smirked at the success. The demon's smile faltered at the realization that both bags had the same name written on them in black marker. "Do you have a last name or are we going to have to call you both 'Danny'?"

With a sigh, he added, "The people I lived among before simply called me the Phantom of the Valley, when they encountered me."

Sam rolled her eyes. "I'm sure they did. So, Danny Phantom, huh?"

He cringed at the suggestion. "Please, if you insist on using names, just 'Phantom' will suffice."

As they made their way to the cafeteria, Sam was still celebrating her minor victory, while the two boys in tow shared expressions of equal distress.

Danny could only hope Tucker would be less inquisitive.

* * *

Four months later and hey have like 900 words! Like I said I only write this when I've got some killer writer's block on everything else I'm doing. And that day was today. Feels good to get behind a keyboard though.

Disclaimer: I swear I wasn't politically motivated by recent events in the media when I decided demon!Phantom was from the Caucasus, in a male-on-male romance story. No, really. He's just very (very) loosely based on some 19th-century stories from that region. He sounds British because where else would he have picked up English.

...Only tangentially related, I love this idea Russian writers had that sometimes demons would just lounge around in people's houses under the stove or wherever was warmest. He'd have to fight my cat for the privilege around here.


End file.
